Oliver Ekman Larsson injured at the World Championship.

The Vancouver Canucks received some bad news this week when it was revealed that, in spite of the fact that their season has already come to an end, Canucks defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson has been injured.

On Saturday, the Canucks department of public relations announced that Ekman-Larsson would be sidelined for the next 4 to 6 weeks after suffering a fractured foot. The news is definitely not ideal but at least it comes in the offseason when he will have plenty of time to recover and more importantly won't be missing any time on the ice for the Canucks.

Ekman-Larsson suffered the injury at the International Ice Hockey Federation's World Championship where he was representing his home country of Sweden, captaining the team in fact. Ekman-Larsson was initially injured after blocking a shot early on in the tournament and would miss two games due to the injury he suffered as a result of that incident, but he would eventually return to the lineup in spite of the injury. This was no doubt an effort by Ekman-Larsson at leading by example as the team's captain for the tournament.

The hope is of course that remaining in the tournament didn't aggravate the injury in any way, although I doubt many will look to criticize Ekman-Larsson for toughing it out while representing his home country.

Unfortunately these things can happen when you allow your players to play in tournaments such as these, although the experience that they gain playing against some of the best in the world can be invaluable. That is especially the case for someone like Ekman-Larsson who was put in a leadership position by his country's hockey program during the tournament.

In his most recent season in the National Hockey League, his first with the Canucks, Ekman-Larsson recorded 5 goals and added 24 assists for a total of 29 points over 79 games played. He finished the season with 52 penalty minutes and a plus minus rating of +5.

As always I wish Ekman-Larsson a full and speedy recovery, especially since his recovery will no doubt cut into his time off this summer.